


When it comes to us...

by thesoulofchaos



Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-03 04:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17277086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesoulofchaos/pseuds/thesoulofchaos
Summary: Short-fic based ~10 years after the events of Bully; Pete is woken by Jimmy at 2 a.m





	When it comes to us...

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018, 12 days of Christmas challenge

Pete shouldn’t have been surprised to open the door to his apartment at two in the morning and find Jimmy stood on the other side. Though, if he thought about it long enough, he wasn’t actually surprised. More a tired mixture of frustrated and relieved; it had been over forty eight hours since he’d spoken to Jimmy and Jimmy almost never forgot to text goodnight.

“Get inside before anyone sees you”, Pete mumbled, self-conscious as he realised that he was wearing just his pajama trousers, it had got too warm in the night and he had flung his t-shirt across the room. Jimmy did as he was told, the fact that he did so without comment was enough to worry Pete.

“Sorry ‘bout this, wasn’t sure where else to go”, Jimmy said as he crumpled onto one of Pete’s kitchen chairs. It was only under the bright of the kitchen lighting that Pete saw the blood on Jimmy’s shirt.

“Fucking hell, what’s this?”, Pete went straight into caretaker mode. Kevin made fun of him for it, made sly digs whenever Pete fussed over an injury or illness. Jimmy was fortunate that Kevin wasn’t in town that evening; that would have been a difficult encounter to explain.

“Just a graze is all but keeps bleeding”, Jimmy grunted as he moved into a better position and lifted his shirt. Pete stared at the injury until his eyes watered,

“Is that a fucking gunshot?”, and he felt like his legs were going to wobble from under him so he crouched down.

“Sins of the past, Petey boy but it’s alright”, Jimmy tried to palm him off with that boyish grin that had worked all the way through school, that had charmed more than a few men and women at college, but Pete was having none of it.

“Don’t call me Petey boy, you know it pisses me off and stop being so bloody blasé”, Pete stormed into the bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit from the medicine cabinet. He took a moment to catch his breath. When he returned to the front room, he felt a bit petty for feeling glad that Jimmy at least had the decency to look contrite. Pete knelt down in front of Jimmy and waved for him to take his top off, Jimmy did with a grimace.

“It’s going to sting”, Pete warned as he took out some antiseptic, “you should be at a hospital but I gather that’s not happening”.

“Too many questions”, Jimmy answered vaguely.

“Should I be expecting trouble after this?”, Pete asked as he cleaned out the wound. Jimmy winced and breathed out sharply between his teeth, and for a moment Pete was reminded of Bullworth. Ten years earlier, cleaning out a knife wound on Jimmy’s upper arm courtesy of Gary Smith. He glanced up and rolled his eyes, Jimmy had got a tattoo done around the scar.

“I’d never bring any danger to your doorstep Pete, you know that”, and Jimmy sounded hurt. Pete just nodded. He did know that. After Gary, Jimmy had promised he would never do anything to bring danger into Pete’s world - that he had had enough from one supposed friend and Jimmy wouldn’t be repeating Gary’s mistakes. Pete swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to ignore the voice in his head arguing that Pete brought enough danger to his doorstep without Jimmy bringing any.

Pete carefully put a gauze over the injury and then wrapped bandage around Jimmy’s midsection, having to stand up and get Jimmy to do the same to make it easier. Jimmy towered over him now - he had hit his growth spurt around his sixteenth birthday and shot up to over six foot. Pete had plateaued at five foot nine. 

“I still think you should go to hospital”, Pete said as he finished with the bandage, “if it gets worse you’ll have to”.

“If it gets worse, I will”, Jimmy agreed and Pete could feel him watching as Pete tidied away the medical supplies.

“There’s some left-overs in the fridge”, Pete said before he put the first aid kit away.

“Just want some sleep is all”, Jimmy replied.

“I’ll get you some blankets”, Pete said and he moved from the bathroom to the bedroom. Just as he was pulling blankets out of the wardrobe, he felt arms go around his waist and he shuddered against the warm body behind him.

“Perfectly good bed’ll fit both of us”, Jimmy's arms tightened just enough that Pete could feel the muscles tense in an embrace.

“You know we can’t”, Pete said, but his hand had already dropped from the blanket.

“Don’t know nothing says we can’t both have a good night’s sleep”, Jimmy replied.

“You know I’m with Kevin, I can’t...we can’t…”, Pete protested but one of Jimmy’s hands moved to Pete’s arm, brushed so softly over the bruises there as if he could smooth them away.

“I know all I need to know about Kevin”, Jimmy whispered, “just a decent night’s sleep and I’ll be out your hair tomorrow, promise”. Pete knew that once he agreed,  _ ‘just a decent night’s sleep’ _ was not what they would be having and he knew he should feel guilty for wanting to just say yes and be done with this song and dance where he convinced himself that he had tried to hold out against his own desires.

“You know there’s never anything ‘just’ when it comes to us”, Pete said as he took Jimmy’s hand and pulled him towards the bed.

“Never was, wouldn’t have it any other way”

  
  



End file.
